In wake of Ferguson shooting, calls escalate for cops to wear body cams

Cameras serve as a "check against the abuse of power by police officers," says ACLU.

The City of Ferguson, Missouri, in turmoil following last week's shooting death of an unarmed African-American teen by a white police officer, is "exploring" whether to outfit its police force with pager-sized surveillance cams in patrol cars and on officers' vests that record everything the officer is seeing.

The city announced the idea Tuesday, days after rioting, looting, and mass protests commenced following the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was killed on August 9. There are various accounts of what led to the teen's death. Surveillance cameras could have helped the authorities figure out what prompted a police officer to fire on Brown as many as six times.

"We are exploring a range of actions that are intended for the community to feel more connected to and demonstrate the transparency of our city departments," the city said the day before Attorney General Eric Holder arrived Wednesday to flesh out the situation for himself.

But Ferguson is not alone in calling for its officers to be outfitted with body cams. The mayor of Hawthorne, a Los Angeles suburb, has also called for police to wear body cameras in the wake of Brown's shooting.

Axon Flex, from Taser International, is used by the Rialto Police Department in California.

“I am simply not willing to gamble with a single life, or the wrongful accusation of upstanding officers,” Hawthorne Mayor Chris Brown said Monday. And last week, Letitia James, the New York City public advocate, said that the New York City Police Department should wear them, too.

"We are living in an increasingly technological world, and we should take measures to incorporate video cameras into policing to improve public safety," she said.

Only a small number of US police departments have outfitted their officers with body cameras, including forces in Fresno, California; Oakland, California; Rialto, California; Pittsburgh; Salt Lake City; and Cincinnati.

It could never be known for sure whether on-scene footage could have prevented the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting. But surveillance of police activities clearly sheds more light on eyewitness—and he-said, she-said—accounts.

It's not known exactly how many cities outfit their officers with vest cams. But Rialto, which has a Southern California population of about 100,000, began requiring its police force to wear Taser International's Axon Flex body cameras in 2012.

"Officer worn cameras reduced the rate of use-of-force incidents by 59 percent. In other words, before the cameras, the rate of use of force incidents was 2.5 times higher than with cameras," according to the department's study. The study added that the use of force by officers decreased 60 percent (PDF) and citizen complaints were down 88 percent.

"What happens," the Wall Street Journalreported, "when police wear cameras isn't simply that tamper-proof recording devices provide an objective record of an encounter—though some of the reduction in complaints is apparently because of citizens declining to contest video evidence of their behavior—but a modification of the psychology of everyone involved."

"Although we generally take a dim view of the proliferation of surveillance cameras in American life, police on-body cameras are different because of their potential to serve as a check against the abuse of power by police officers. Historically, there was no documentary evidence of most encounters between police officers and the public, and due to the volatile nature of those encounters, this often resulted in radically divergent accounts of incidents. Cameras have the potential to be a win-win, helping protect the public against police misconduct, and at the same time helping protect police against false accusations of abuse," the ACLU said.

David Kravets / The senior editor for Ars Technica. Founder of TYDN fake news site. Technologist. Political scientist. Humorist. Dad of two boys. Been doing journalism for so long I remember manual typewriters with real paper.